AS THE year draws to a close, how will you remember 2014? Has it been an ordinary year, just like any other? Or maybe it was one of the best in recent memory? Perhaps it is the worst on record? Or maybe you don’t even follow the Gregorian calendar, and have to endure another season of holidays, superstitions and resolutions that hold no meaning for you whatsoever!

A Finnish company is challenging online giants with its cloud storage service.

DROPBOX, Google Drive, OneDrive, Amazon Cloud Drive... there’s no shortage of options for anyone looking to put their files in the cloud. But while the biggest cloud storage services are created by US tech titans, there is now also a Finnish-made alternative.

The city of Cambridge is one of magic. If you keep your eyes open, you’ll spot Stephen Hawking in his wheelchair running his daily physicist-cosmologist errands. Throughout my past two years studying in this great place, I’ve met a myriad of inspiring people, including discussions on Kosovo with Nobel-prize winning peacekeeper Martti Ahtisaari and the Finnish cultural society, to a discussion with Pamela Anderson over iPhone chargers, to taking advice from the successful-and-charitable Mo Ibrahim.

WHILE you may have noticed how common it is for your Finnish friends and relatives to traverse long distances around the country, it seems that the world has also cottoned on. While many Finns wouldn’t bat an eyelid at driving say, from Helsinki to Rovaniemi for an overnighter, did you know that Finns are actually leading the global pack when it comes to travel?

What has traditionally only been an option forthose residing at the lower end of the wage scale, the number of loans taken out in Finland in recent times suggests that times have indeed changed. People from all walks of life are in debt.

A recent article in Helsingin Sanomat shone a light on the situation. Over the last year, a third of Finns have spent more than they can afford, while one in ten have asked for a salary advance.